Fener Kalamış Cad. Belvü Apt. No: 75
K: 1 D:2 Kadıköy / İstanbul / Türkiye
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Executive functions include planning, generating intentional movements, shifting, problem solving, judgement, inhibition of inappropriate behavior, fluent speaking and working memory. This definition has expanded since Luria’s era and it is still growing. Identification and evaluation of executive functions is an important problem in clinical practice. Frontal lobes regulate appropriate behaviors through the circuitries, which are between frontal lobes and subcortical structures. Frontalsubcortical circuits; dorsolateral prefrontal, anterior cingulate and orbitofrontal circuits constitute the framework that mediates the executive control of cognition, emotion and behavior by connecting nonmotor areas of frontal cortex to basal ganglia and thalamus. We’ll present here a dysexecutive syndrome case. Our case is a 31 year-old male, who had epidural hematoma due to a fall. He started to recognize his relatives two months after the fall. He was cheerful and talkative prior to the trauma, he experienced. He has got dysmnesia and depressive signs and was not able to perform his job after the trauma. Furthermore, he became introverted and was not talkative anymore. On examination, he seemed detached, apathic and abulia was prominent. His Hamilton Depression Rating Scale score was 20 and the Apathy Evaluation Scale score was 47 points. Magnetic resonance imaging of brain showed that there was a cystic encephalomalacia in the left frontotemporal region. Stroop Test result was out of normal range. In our case, the lesion affected the frontal lobe whereas not all of the dysexecutive syndromes arise from frontal lobes. Dysexecutive syndrome has been reported in patients with lesions outside the frontal lobe, mostly in the thalamus and basal ganglia. In clinical practice, the differential diagnosis of dysexecutive syndrome should be kept in mind.


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